Burn
by EthiopianPrincess
Summary: Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?..TO BE CONTINUED..
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hi everyone! I have decided to upload another story. Actually, this was written a long time ago. I think now is the time for this to be posted. Hope you guys will like it.

**Disclaimer:**I do not own Naruto. The only character I own here is Uchiha Kenji.

**Rating:** T for Teens (Ratings may change)

**Age of Characters: **Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.

Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old

**Summary:**Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?

* * *

The air was clear and the moon over Konoha was new, but there was a tangle of cobwebs in her mind. Sakura couldn't seem to think her way out of the confusion. She shut her ears to the voices quietly celebrating in the other parts of the house and stared out the window.

A shudder passed through her. It couldn't have been from the night's chill, since the house was comfortably heated. Her emerald eyes slid to her arms, crossed in front of her, hugging her middle. Perhaps, it was the cold weight of the precious metal around her finger.

Sakura turned from the window. Her restless gaze swept around the library, noting all that was familiar. Interrupting the dark, richly paneled sides of the room was a wall of bookshelves, floor to ceiling. A myriad of deeply toned bindings formed rows of muted rainbows. A sofa covered in antique velvet faced the fireplace, flanked by two chairs upholstered in a complementing patterned fabric. In a corner of the room stood a mahogany desk, its top neat and orderly.

The door to the library opened and Sakura turned. Her hair shimmered in the dim light. A pang of regret raced through her that her solitude had been broken, followed by a twinge of remorse that she had felt the need to be alone this time.

Closing the door, Naruto walked toward her, smiling despite the faintly puzzled gleam in his eyes.

"So this is where you've got to," he murmured, an unspoken question behind the indulgent tone.

"Yes," Sakura nodded, unaware of the sigh in her voice, or how forced her smile looked.

As she came closer, her gaze made a detached inspection of him. Unlike hers, his coloring was fair, sandy blond hair falling rakishly across his forehead, always seeming to invite fingers to push it back in place. His eyes were a cerulean blue, shining like hers.

At twenty-one, a contemporary of Sasuke's, there was a boyish air about him that was an integral part of his charm. In fact, it was with Sasuke that Sakura had first met Naruto. The cobwebs spun around that thought to block it out. Slim and supple, Naruto was only a few inches taller than she in her heels.

He stopped in front of her, his intent gaze studying her expressionless face. Sakura was unconscious of how totally she masked her inner turmoil. As his hands settled lightly on her shoulders, she was passive under his touch.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto cocked his head slightly to his side, his gaze still probing.

"I was thinking."

"That's forbidden." His hands slid around her and Sakura yielded to undemanding embrace, uncrossing her arms to spread them across his chest.

Why not? His shoulder had become a familiar resting place for her head, used often in the last two and a half years. Her eyes closed at the feathery caress of his lips over her temple and cheek.

"You should be in the living room noisily celebrating with the others," he told her in mock reproof.

Sakura laughed softly in her throat. "They're not '_noisily_' celebrating. They don't '_noisily_' do anything, whether it's rejoice or grieve."

"Perhaps not," he conceded. "But even a restrained celebration should have the engaged couple in attendance, namely you and me. Not just me alone."

"I know," she sighed.

His shoulder wasn't as comfortable as it had seemed. Sakura turned out of his unresisting embrace, nerves stretching taut again as the niggling sense of unease and confusion wouldn't leave. Her troubled gaze searched the night's darkness beyond the windowpanes as if expecting to find the answer there.

With her back turned to him, she felt Naruto resting his hands on either side of her neck, where the contracted cords were hard bands of tension.

"Relax, Sakura-chan. You've let yourself get all strung up again." His supple fingers began working their magic, gently kneading the coiled muscles in her neck and shoulders.

"I can't help it." A frown puckered her forehead despite the pleasant manipulations of his hands. "I simply don't know if I'm doing the right thing."

"Of course you are."

"Am I?" a corner of her mouth lifted in a half a smile, self-mocking and skeptical. "I don't know how I let you talk me into this engagement."

"Me? Talk _you_into it?" Naruto laughed, his warm breath fanning the pink strands of her hair. "You make it sound as if I twisted your arm, and I'd never do that. You're much too beautiful to risk damaging."

"Flatterer!" But Sakura felt old, old beyond her years.

"It got me you."

"And I know I agreed willingly to this engagement," she admitted.

"Willingly but hesitantly," added Naruto, continuing the slow and relaxing massage of her shoulders and neck.

"I wasn't sure. And I still don't know if I'm sure."

"I didn't rush you into a decision, Sakura-chan. I gave you all the time you wanted because I understand why you felt you needed it," he reasoned. "And there won't be any marriage until you set the date. Our agreement is a little more than a trial engagement."

"I know." Her voice was flat. Sakura didn't find the necessary reassurance in his words.

"Look–" Naruto turned her to face him. "–I was Sasuke's best friend."

Yes, Sakura thought. He had been Naruto's right arm; now he was hers. Always there, ready to support her decision, coaxing a smile when her spirits were low and the will to go on had faded.

"So I know what kind of man your husband was," he continued. "I'm not trying to take his place. As a matter of fact, I don't want to take his place any more than I want you to take his ring from your finger."

His remark drew her gaze to the intertwining silver band and diamond solitaire on the third finger of her left hand. The interlocking rings had been joined by a third, a diamond floret designed to complement the first pair. It was Naruto's engagement ring to her.

He curved a finger under her chin to lift it. "All that I'm hoping is that with a little more patience and persistence I can carve some room in your heart to care for me."

"I do, Naruto," Sakura stated. "Without you, I don't know how I would have made it through those months when Sasuke was missing – when we didn't know if he was alive or dead. And when we were notified that he'd been kil–"

The rest of the words were silenced by his firm kiss. Then he gathered her into his arms to hold her close, molding her slender curved shape to his lean, muscular body.

His mouth was near her temple, moving against her silken hair as he spoke. "That's in the past. You have to forget it."

"I can't." there was a negative movement of her head against his. "I keep remembering the way I argued with Sasuke before he left for his mission," she sighed. "He wanted me to stay but I refused. Then he used his sharingan on me and I fall unconscious. And he left me." Another sigh came from her lips, tinged with anger and regret. "Our quarrels were always over such petty things that seem so stupid now."

"The strong vying with the strong." Naruto lifted his head to gaze at the rueful light in her eyes. "I'm partial to strong-minded women."

His teasing words provoked the smile he sought. "I suppose I have to admit to being that, don't I?"

A fire smoldered in his look, burning away the teasing light. "And I love you for being strong, Sakura-chan." His hand slid to the small of her back. "And I love you for being all woman."

Then his mouth was seeking hers again in a kiss that was warm and passionate. She submitted to his ardor, gradually responding in kind, reveling in the gentle caress of his hands that remained short of intimate. Naruto never demanded more from her than she was willing to give. His understanding restraint endeared him to her, making her heart swell with quiet happiness.

When he lifted his head, Sakura nestled into the crook of his arm, resting her cheek against his shoulder, smiling with tender pleasure. That lock of his hair, the color of sun-bleached sand, was across his forehead. She gave in to the impulse to brush it back with the rest, knowing it would spring forward the instant it was done. Which it did.

"Feel better?" His fingers returned the caress by tracing the curve of her cheekbone.

"Mmm."

"What were you thinking about when I came in?"

Her hand slid to his shirt, smoothing the collar.

"I don't know. I guess I was wishing."

"Wishing what?"

Sakura paused. She didn't know what she had been wishing. Finally she said, "That we hadn't told the others about our engagement, that we'd kept it to ourselves for a while. I wish we weren't having this engagement party."

"It's just Sasuke's family and friends. There's been no official announcement made," Naruto reminded her.

"I know." She usually had no difficulty in expressing herself but the uncertainty of her own thoughts made it impossible.

Something was bothering her, but she didn't know what it was. It wasn't as if she hadn't waited a proper time before deciding to marry again. It had been two and a half years since Sasuke had disappeared and a little more than a year since the Anbu had informed her that they found the group Sasuke was in and there had been no survivors.

And it wasn't as if she didn't love Naruto, although not in the same tumultuous way she loved Sasuke. This was a quiter and gentler emotion and probably deeper.

"Sakura-chan–" his smile was infinitely impatient. "–we couldn't keep our engagement from our family and friends. They need time, too, to get adjusted to the idea that you're going to be my wife."

"That's true," Sakura acknowledged. It was not an idea that could be implanted overnight.

The door to the library opened and an older woman dressed in black was framed in its jamb. An indulgent smile curved her mouth as she spied the embracing pair. Sakura stiffened for an instant in Naruto's arms then forced herself to relax.

"We've been wondering where the two of you had gone," the woman chided them. "It's time you came back to the party and received some of the toasts being made."

"We'll be there in a minute, Mikoto-san," Sakura replied to the woman who was Sasuke's mother, her mother-in-law.

Uchiha Mikoto's role in life had always been the traditional one, centered on her home and family. With her husband dead and both of her sons M.I.A., she clung to Sakura as her family and to her home as security.

"If you don't, I'm afraid the party will move in here and there's hardly enough room for them all."

"We'll be there in a minute, Mikoto-san." Naruto added his promise to Sakura's. With a nod the woman closed the door and Naruto glanced at Sakura. "Do you suppose you'll be able to persuade her to wear something other than black to our wedding?"

"I doubt it." She moved out of his arms, a faintly cynical smile curving her lips. "Uchiha Mikoto likes portraying the image of a tragic figure."

Within a few weeks after Sakura's marriage to Sasuke, Uchiha Fugaku, his father, had died unexpectedly in an ambush and Mikoto had purchased an entire wardrobe of black. She had barely been out of mourning when they received the news that Itachi's group was missing and believed were ambushed. Instantly, Uchiha Mikoto began dressing in black, not waiting for the notification that came a year ago declaring her son to be considered officially dead.

"She approves of our marriage. You know that, don't you?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, she approves," Sakura agreed, "for the sake of the company." _And for the fact that there would only be one "widow" Uchiha instead of two_ – but Sakura didn't say that, knowing that it would sound small and unkind when her mother-in-law had been almost smothering in her love toward her.

"She still doesn't believe you're capable of running the company after all this time," Naruto concluded from her response. He shook his head wryly.

"I couldn't do it without you." Sakura stated it as a fact, not an expression of gratitude.

"I'm with you." He curved an arm around her waist as she started for the door to leave the room. "So you won't have to worry about that."

As Naruto reached forward to open the door for her, Sakura was reminded of that frozen instant when Mikoto had opened the door seconds ago. She wondered if the same thought had crossed her mother-in-law's mind as it had her own. She had recalled the numerous times Mikoto had opened the library door to find Sakura sitting on Sasuke's lap locked in one of his crushing and possessive embraces. This time it had been Naruto's arms that held her instead of Sasuke's. She wondered if her mother-in-law was aware of the vast differences between the two men as she was.

In the last months, after the uncertainty of Sasuke's fate had been settled and there had been time to reflect, Sakura had tried to imagine what the last two and a half years might have been like if Sasuke had lived. Theirs had been such a brief, stormy marriage, carrying the possibility that one battle could have ended the union permanently.

Naruto, on the other hand, was always predictable and the time Sakura spent with him was always pleasant. Under his supportive influence she had discovered skills and potentials she hadn't known she possessed. Her intelligence had been channeled into constructive fields and expanded to encompass more knowledge instead of being sharpened for warring exchanges with Sasuke.

Her personality had matured in a hurry, owing to the circumstances of Sasuke's disappearance. She had become a very confident and self-assured woman and she gave all the credit for the change to Naruto.

Some of her misgivings vanished as she walked out with Naruto to rejoin the party in the main area of the house. There was no earthly reason not to enjoy the engagement party, none whatsoever.

The instant they returned to the spacious living room, they were engulfed by the sedate gathering of well-wishers. Each seemed to display a reverence for the antique furniture that abounded in the room, beautiful Victorian pieces enhanced by paintings and art objects. The atmosphere decreed formality and behavior.

"I see you found the two of them, Mikoto," Uchiha Kenji announced belatedly. His voice had a tendency to boom, an abrasive sound that drew unnecessary attention to their absence from the party. "Off in some secluded corner, no doubt." He winked with faith suggestiveness at Sakura. "Reminds me of the times you and Sasuke were always slipping away to cuddle in some corner." He glanced down at the brandy in his hand. "I miss that boy." It was an absent comment, his thoughts spoken aloud.

An awkward tension charged the moment. Naruto, with his usual diplomacy, smoothed it over. "We all miss him, Kenji," he asserted quietly, his arm curving protectively around Sakura's shoulders.

"What?" Kenji initial reaction was blankness, as if unaware that he said out loud what was on his mind. He flushed uncomfortably at the newly engaged pair. "Of course, we do, but it doesn't stop any of us from wishing you much happiness together," he insisted and lifted his glass, calling the others to a toast. "To Sakura and Naruto and their future together."

Sakura maintained her façade of smiling happiness but it was an odd feeling to have the celebrants of their engagement party consist of Sasuke's family and relatives. Without family herself, her parents having been killed in an S-Class mission the year before she had met Sasuke, there had been no close relatives of her own to invite. Her friends are all out in missions so she doesn't have any friend to invite.

When Mikoto had asked to give them an engagement party, it had been a difficult offer to reject. Sakura had chosen not to, finding it the easiest and quickest means to inform all of the Uchiha family of her decision to accept Naruto's proposal. She wasn't blind to her mother-in-law's motives. Uchiha Mikoto wished to remain close to her.

But the engagement party had proved her to be more of a trial than Sakura had thought. The announcement had raised too much inner restlessness and vague doubts. None of the celebrants could see that. She was too well schooled in concealing her feelings. When the party ended at a suitable hour, no one was the wiser. Not even Naruto suspected that she was stiff plagued by apprehensions when he kissed her good night. It was something Sakura knew she would have to work out alone.

* * *

Well, that's the end of Chapter One. I hope you enjoyed reading this story. So what do you think? Do you want me to continue or not? Let me know what you think. Please review.

~fallenleaves142~


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **I would like to thank all those who read and reviewed this story. I'm getting quite a good feedback about the first chapter of this story. Thanks to my friends and to my loyal readers. Here's the chapter two. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. The only characters I own here are the OOC's.

**Rating:** T for Teens (Ratings may change)

**Age of Characters: **

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.

Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old

**Summary:** Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?

* * *

Over the weekend, the news of their engagement had filtered into the main office of the company of the Uchiha's. Sakura felt certain she had spent the bulk of the morning confirming the rumors that she was engaged to Naruto.

She sincerely doubted that there was anyone in the building who had not stopped at her office to extend congratulations and questioning looks.

A mountain of work covered the massive walnut desk top – letters to be answered, reports to be read and memos to be issued. With her elbows on the desk top, Sakura rested her forehead on her hands, rubbing the dull throb in its center. Her pink hair had grown to the point where it could be pulled to the nape of her neck in a neat bun, the style adding a few years to her relatively youthful appearance.

The clothing she wore to the office was chosen, too, with an eye to detracting from her youth. Today, it was a long-sleeved blouse of cream yellow with a wine-colored vest and skirt, attractive and stylish yet professional looking.

The intercom buzzed and Sakura lifted her head, reaching over to press the button."Yes?"

"Kazuhiko Sakamura is here to see you, Mrs. Uchiha," was the reply from her secretary who was the only one of the executive staff younger than Sakura was.

"Send him in."

Sakura picked up her reading glasses, which were lying on a stack of papers she had been reading and put them on. She could see to read without them, but inevitably after hours of reading the eye strain became too much. Lately, she had taken to wearing them almost constantly at the office to avoid the headaches that accompanied the strain and subconsciously because they added a businesslike air to her appearance. There was a wry twist of her mouth as the doorknob to her office turned, an inner acknowledgement that she had been wrong in thinking everyone had been in to offer congratulations. Kazihiko hadn't, and the omission was about to be corrected. As the door opened, her mouth finished its curve into a polite smile of greeting.

"Good morning, Kazuhiko-san."

The tall and brawny white-haired man who entered smiled and returned the greeting. "Good morning, Mrs. Uchiha." Only Naruto used her first name at the office and then only when they were alone. "I just heard the news that you and Naruto are getting married. Congratulations," he offered predictably.

"Thank you," she nodded for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning.

There was no silent, unmasked question in the look he gave her. "I'm truly glad for you, Mrs. Uchiha. I know there are some people here who think you're somehow being unfaithful to Sasuke's memory by marrying again. Personally, I think it speaks well of your marriage to him."

"You do?" Her voice was briskly cool; she did not care for discussions about her private life, although her curiosity was rising by degrees as she tried to follow his logic.

"Yes – I mean, obviously your marriage to Sasuke was very satisfactory or you wouldn't want to enter the wedded state again," he reasoned.

"I see." Her smile was tight, lacking warmth. "Sasuke and I did have a good marriage." Whether they did, she couldn't say. It had been too brief. "And I know Naruto and I will too."

"When is the wedding?"

"We haven't set the date yet."

"Be sure to send me an invitation."

"We will." Sakura's hopes for a quiet wedding and no reception were fast dissipating under the rush of requests to attend. An elopement was beginning to look inviting.

"At least you won't have to concern yourself with the company after you're married," Sakamura observed with a benign smile.

"I beg your pardon?" Sakura was instantly alert and on the defensive, no longer mouthing the polite words she had repeated all morning.

"After you're married, you can go back to being a simple housewife. Naruto will make a good president," he replied.

_Why the accent on "simple," _Sakura wondered bitterly. "My marriage to Naruto will have no effect on the company. It will continue to be run jointly by both of us with myself as president," she stated, not wanting to remember that the work had been done by Sasuke alone. Rigid with anger, she turned to the papers on her desk. "I don't see monthly reports from other branches of our company. Has it come in?"

"I don't believe so." Her abrupt change of subject warned the man he treading on forbidden ground. His previous open expression became closed and officious.

"Ayame Sugurimoto is the manager there, isn't he?"

"Yes."

"Call him and find out where the report is. I want it on my desk by four this afternoon even if he has to do all means to send it to me," she ordered.

"I'll see to it right away, Mrs. Uchiha."

When the door closed behind him, Sakura rose from the overstuffed cushion on her swivel office chair and walked to the window. Afterquakes of resentment were still trembling through her. Almost since Sasuke's disappearance, she had run the company with Naruto's help; but her competence to fill the position still want recognized by some of the executive officers.

It hadn't been by design but through necessity that she had taken over. When Sasuke disappeared, the company had been like a ship without a rudder, without guidance or direction. It had operated smoothly for a while then it began to flounder helplessly.

The key members if the executive staff, those who might have been competent enough to take over, had resigned to take positions with more solid companies, like deserting a sinking ship. That was when Sakura had been forced to step in, by virtue of the Uchiha name.

It hadn't been easy. The odds were stacked against her because she was young and a woman and totally ignorant of the machinations of the company, not to say limited in experience. Exerting her authority had been the most difficult part. Most of the staff were old enough to be her parents and some, like Sakamura Kazuhiko, were old enough to be her grandparents.

Sakura had learned the hard way, by trial and many errors. The worries, the fears that she had about Sasuke, she had to keep to herself. Very early she discovered that the men who offered her a shoulder to cry on were also insistently offering their beds.

More and more in those early days, she began turning to Naruto for his unselfish and undemanding support. Not once did he make a single virtue toward her, not until several months after Sasuke's death had been confirmed. She trusted him implicitly and he had never given her a reason to doubt him.

But Sakamura Kazuhiko had just put a question in her mind – one Sakura didn't like facing but there seemed to be no eluding it.

Shaking her head, Sakura walked back to her desk. She picked up the telephone receiver and hesitated, staring at the numbers on the dial. There was a quick knock on her office door, followed by the click of the latch as it was opened without waiting for her permission to enter. Replacing the receiver, Sakura turned to the door as Naruto appeared.

"You'll never guess what I just heard," he whispered with exaggerated secrecy.

"What is it?" Sakura grew tense.

"Uzumaki Naruto is going to marry Mrs. Uchiha."

What she expected him to say, Sakura had no idea. But at his answer she laughed with a mixture of amusement and relief, some of her tension fleeting.

"You've heard that rumor, too, have you?" she retorted.

"Are you kidding?" He grimaced in a boyish fashion that made her heart warm to him all the more. "I've been trying to get to my office since nine o'clock this morning and haven't made it yet. I keep getting stopped along the way."

"As bad as that?" Sakura smiled.

"The hallway is a veritable gauntlet."

She knew the feeling. "We should have called everybody together this morning, made the announcement then gone to work. It would have made a more productive morning."

"Hindsight, my love," he chided, walking over to kiss her lightly on the cheek.

"Yes," Sakura agreed. She removed her glasses and made a show of concentrating on them as she placed them on the desk top. "Now that everyone knows, they're all waiting for me to hand in my resignation and name you as the successor to the Uchiha throne." Without seeming to, she watched Naruto's reaction closely.

"I hope you set them straight about that," he replied without hesitation. "We make an excellent team. And there certainly isn't any reason to break up a winning combination in the company just because we're getting married."

"That's what I thought," she agreed.

Taking her by the shoulders, Naruto turned her to face him, tipping his head to one side in an inquiring manner. "Have I told you this morning how beautiful you are?"

"No." The edges of her mouth dimpled slightly as she answered him in the same serious tone that he had used. "But you can tell me now."

"You're very beautiful, Sakura-chan."

With the slightest pressure, he drew her yielding shape to him. As his mouth lightly took possession of hers, the intercom buzzed. Sakura moved out of his arms with a rueful smile of apology.

She pressed the button. "Yes?"

"Kotetsu is on line one," came the reply.

"Thank you." Sakura broke the connection and glanced at Naruto with a resigned shrug of her shoulders.

"Kotetsu," he repeated. "That's the Uchiha family attorney, isn't it?"

"Yes," she nodded, reaching for the telephone. "Probably some business to do with Sasuke's estate."

"That's my cue for an exit." And Naruto started for the door.

"Dinner tonight at eight?" Sakura questioned.

"Perfect," he agreed with a wink.

"Call Mikoto-san and tell her I've invited you." She picked up the telephone receiver, her finger hovering above the blinking button on line one.

"Consider it done."

Sakura watched him leave. Just for a few minutes, Sakamura Kazuhiko had made her suspect that Naruto might be marrying her to elevate his position in the company. But his instant and casual rejection of the suggestion of becoming president had erased that. Her trust in him was once again complete.

She pushed the button. "Hello, Kotetsu. Mrs. Uchiha speaking."

"Ah, Mrs. Uchiha. How are you?" came the gravelly voice in answer.

"Just fine, thank you."

* * *

A/N: Hmm…nothing much had happened in this chapter. Mostly the appearance of OOC's. Since it's our vacation now, I'll try to update once every week so expect that the next chapter will be posted next week.

Anyway, here's a short preview of the next chapter:

"_What's going on?"_

"_Look, there's something I have to tell you."_

"_It's this…"_

"_Naruto seems to think you're going to go into a state of shock when you find out I'm alive."_

Please review. Thank you.

~fallenleaves142~


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **I would like to thank all those who read and reviewed this story. As promised, here's an update for you.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. The only characters I own here are the OOC's.

**Rating:** T for Teens (Ratings may change)

**Age of Characters: **

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.

Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old

**Summary:** Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?

* * *

By the end of the week, the excitement generated by the news of their engagement had died down and work was able to settle into a routine again. The invisible pressure the news had evoked had eased as well.

Yet on Saturday morning Sakura wakened with the sun, unable to go back to sleep. Finally she stopped trying, arose and dressed in slacks and white blouse with a pullover sweater. The other members of the household, Sasuke's mother and their housekeeper were still asleep.

Sakura hurriedly tidied the room, unfolding the blue satin coverlet from the foot of the four-poster bed and smoothing it over the mattress. Their housekeeper was such a perfectionist that she would probably do it over again. Fluffing the satin pillow shams, Sakura placed them at the head of the bed.

The clothes she had worn last night were lying on the blue and gold brocade cushion of the love seat. Sakura hung them up in the large closet. The neck-scarf she folded and carried to its drawer.

Inside, the gift edge of a picture frame gleamed amidst the lingerie and fashion accessories. It lay face down, concealing the photograph of Sasuke. Until Naruto had given her an engagement ring, the picture had been on the bedside table. Now it was relegated to a dresser drawer, a photograph of the past that had nothing to do with the present. Sakura closed the drawer and glanced down the room. Everything seemed to be in order.

After Sasuke's disappearance two and a half years ago, it had seemed senseless for both Sakura and his mother to keep separate households, especially when the days began to stretch into weeks and months. In the end Sakura had sublet the apartment she and Sasuke had in Konoha to move to the house with his mother.

She had thought it would ease her loneliness and provide an outlet for her inner fears, but it hadn't proved to be so. Sakura had spent the bulk of her private time counseling Mikoto-san, as she called her mother-in-law, and had received little if any consolation in return.

Still, it was a suitable arrangement, a place to sleep and eat, with all the housekeeping and meals done by others. With most of her time and energy spent in keeping the company going, the arrangement had become a definite asset.

Now, as she tipped out of the house into the dawn, Sakura wished for the privacy of her own home, where she could steal into the kitchen and fix an early morning breakfast without feeling she was invading someone else's turf. And their housekeeper was jealously possessive about her kitchen.

Closing the door, she listened for the click of the lock. When she heard it, she turned to the steps leading to the driveway and the white car parked there. Inside the house the telephone rang, loud in the silence of the pink morning.

Sakura stopped and began running through her oversize purse for the house key. It was seldom used since there was always someone to let her in. before she found it, the phone had stopped ringing. She waited several seconds to see if it would start ringing again. Someone in the house must have answered it, Sakura decided, or else the party must have decided to call later in the morning.

Skimming down the steps, she hurried to the car, climb in and start the engine. With doughnuts and coffee in a Styrofoam container from a pastry shop, she drove through the quiet business streets.

There was a salty tang to the breeze ruffling her hair. Sakura shook her head to let its cool fingers rake through the silken pink strands. Her blue eyes narrowed in decision as she turned the car away from the street that would take her to the office building and headed toward the solitude of an early morning ocean beach.

Sitting on a piece of driftwood, Sakura watched the sun finish rising on the border of Konoha, the water shimmering and sparkling as the waves lapped around the long strand of ocean beach.

The doughnut crumbs had been tossed to the seagulls, still swooping and soaring nearby in case she missed one. It was peaceful and quiet. The nearest person was a surf fisherman, a stick figure distantly visible. It was one of those times when she thought of many things as she sat, but couldn't remember a single one when she rose to leave.

It was nine o'clock, the time she usually arrive at the office for a half-day's work, minimum. But Sakura couldn't think of a single item that was pressing, except the one the family attorney had called about the first of the week.w

Returning to her car parked off the road near the beach, she drove to the nearest telephone booth and stopped. She rummaged through her purse for change and dialed the office number. It was answered on the second ring.

"This is Mrs. Uchiha." She shut the door of the phone booth to close out the whine of the semitrailer going by. "I won't be in this morning, but there's some correspondence on the Dictaphone I would like typed this morning."

"I've already started it," her young secretary answered.

"Good. When you have it done, leave it on my desk. Then you can call it a day. All right?"

"Yes, thank you, Mrs. Uchiha." Her secretary was obviously delighted.

"See you on Monday." Sakura said and hung up.

Back in her car, she headed for the boat marina where Sasuke's sailboat was docked. She parked the car by the small shed that served as an office. A man sat in a chair out front.

Balance was the better word, as the chair was tilted back, allowing only the two rear legs to support it. The man's arms were folded in front of him and a faded captain's hat was pulled over his face, permitting only a glimpse of his double chin and the graying stubble of beard.

Sakura hopped out of the car, smiling at the man who hadn't changed in almost three years. "Good morning, Cap'n Tale"

The chair came down with a thump as a large hand pushed the hat back on top of his head. Gray eyes stared at her blankly for a minute before recognition flickered in them.

"How do, Miz Uchiha?" He rose lumberingly to his feet, pulling his faded trousers up to cover his paunch. The end result was to accentuate it.

"It's been so long since I've seen you. How have you been?"

"Mighty fine, Miz Uchiha, mighty fine." The owner of the marina smiled and succeeded in extending the smile to his jowled cheeks. "I s'pose you're here to get the _Stargazer_ cleaned out."

"Yes." Her smile faded slightly. Getting rid of the boat seemed to be like closing the final chapter about Sasuke in her life.

"She's a damn fine boat," he insisted, puffing a bit as he stepped inside the shed door and reached for a key. "Never know someday you may want it yourself."

Sakura laughed, a little husky.

"I'll never forget the time Sasuke came carrying you off the boat sound asleep. He told me aft'wards that you didn't wake up till the next morning."

"If you will recall, that was the last time he even suggested I go sailing with him." She took the key he handed her, feeling a poignant rush of memories and trying to push them back.

"D'ya want some help movin' any of that stuff?" he offered.

"No, thank you." She couldn't imagine the two of them in the small cabin, not with Cap'n Tale's protruding belly. "I can manage."

"You just give me a holler if you need anything," he said nodding his grizzled head. "You know where she's docked."

"I do." With a wave of her hand, Sakura started down the long stretch of dock.

Masts, long, short, and medium, stood in broken lines along the pier, sails furled, the hulls motionless in the quiet water. Her steps were directed by memory along the boards. Although she had rarely ever joined Sasuke after her first two disastrous attempts at sailing, Sakura had often come to the marina to wait for his return. But Sasuke wouldn't be coming back anymore.

The bold letters of the name _Stargazer_ stood out clearly against the white hull. Sakura paused, feeling the tightness in her throat. Then, scolding herself, she stepped aboard. The wooden deck was dull, no longer gleaming and polished as Sasuke had kept it.

It didn't do any good to tell herself she shouldn't have waited so long to do something about the boat. There had been so many other decisions to make and demands on her time. Plus, there had been so many legal entanglements surrounding Sasuke's disappearance. Those had become knots at the notification of his death. Since his estate wasn't settled, the boat still couldn't be sold until the court decreed the dispensation of his property.

The _Stargazer_ had been dry-docked since his disappearance, everything aboard exactly the way he had left it after his last sail. Sakura unlocked the cabin to go below. The time had come to pack away all his things. Kotetsu, the family attorney, had decided the boat should be leased, even if it couldn't be sold yet, to eliminate the maintenance costs and to keep it from deteriorating through lack of use.

It had occurred to Sakura that she should have arranged for someone else to clear away his things and clean up the boat. That was what she planned to do when the attorney had phoned the first of the week to tell her he had received the court's permission to lease the boat. But she was here now and the task lay ahead of her.

Picking up a can, she quickly set it down. The first order was to get a general idea of what had to be done. She continued her methodical examination of the cabin's contents. The clean, if now musty, clothes brought a smile to her lips. It was funny how a person's memory of little things could dim over such a short time as a few years.

A glance at his clothes brought it all back. Sasuke had been very meticulous about his clothes, being always clean and well dressed. Even the several changes of his pants kept aboard the boat were creased and pressed. A thin coating of dust couldn't hide the snow-white of his sneakers.

Both seemed something of an extreme, yet Sakura couldn't remember a time when she had seen him dressed in a manner that could be described as carelessly casual. It made him sound a bit pompous, but the trait hadn't been at all abrasive.

Sasuke had been used to good things all his life – a beautiful home, excellent food, vintage wines and specially tailored clothes. Spoiled? With a trace of arrogance? Perhaps, Sakura conceded. He had been something of a magnet when she had met him, with devastating charm when he wanted to turn it on, and attracting girls whenever he go. Brilliantly intelligent and almost dreadfully organized, he had been exciting and difficult to live with.

Not at all like Naruto, she concluded again. But what was the point in comparing? What could be gained by holding up Sasuke's smooth sophistication to Naruto's easygoing nature? With a shrug of confusion, she turn away from the clothes, shutting her mind to the unanswerable questions.

For the better part of the day she worked aboard the boat, first packing and carrying Sasuke's belongings to her car, where she stuffed them in every conceivable corner of her small car. Then she began cleaning away the years of dust and salt spray, airing the mattresses and cushions and polishing the interior woodwork.

Dirty and sweaty and physically exhausted, she returned the key to the crusty marina operator. Yet the laborious job had been cathartic, leaving her with an oddly refreshed feeling. Lately, all her energy had been expended mentally. The hard work felt good even if her muscles would be stiff and sore tomorrow.

She was humming to herself as her car rounded a corner onto the street where she lived with her mother-in-law. Ahead was the Uchiha manor, an imposing brick structure that towered two and a half stories into the air. At the sight of the half dozen cars parked around the driveway, Sakura frowned and slowed the car, forced to park it some distance from the entrance.

There wasn't any dinner party she had forgotten, was there, she wondered to herself. The cars resembled those belonging to close family friends. One, the silver gray car, was Naruto's. she glanced at her watch. He had said he would stop around seven for a drink before taking her out to dinner. It was barely five o'clock.

Her mouth formed a disgruntled line. She had hoped to soak in a tubful of scented bubbles for an hour, but obviously that luxury was going to be denied her. And why hadn't Mikoto-san mentioned she would be entertaining this evening? It wasn't like her.

Puzzled, Sakura rolled up her windows. This was not the time to transport all the items from the car into the house, so she climbed out of the car, her handbag slung over her shoulder and locked the doors.

Happy voices were talking all over each other from the living room as she entered the house. The double doors of carved oak leading into the room were closed, concealing the owners of the voices. She hesitated then decided to for a quick wash and change while her return was still unnoticed.

Only it wasn't unnoticed. As she started to cross the hall to her bedroom, one of the double doors was surreptitiously opened. Her eyes widened as Naruto slipped out, his handsome features strained and tense.

"Where have you been?" There was a hint of desperation in his voice.

If it weren't for the joyful tone of the voices in the other room, Sakura might have guessed that some catastrophe had befallen them, judging by Naruto's expression.

"At the marina," she answered.

"The marina?" he repeated in disbelief. Again, there was that strangled tightness in his voice. "My God, I've been calling all over trying to find you. I never even considered the marina. What were you doing there, for heaven's sake?"

"The _Stargazer_ – the boat has been leased. I was getting it cleaned up."

The explanation was made while Sakura tried to think what crisis could have arisen that Naruto would have so urgently needed to contact her about.

"Of all the times–"

Sakura broke into sharply. "What's going on?" His attitude was too confusing when she couldn't fathom the reason for it.

"Look, there's something I have to tell you." Naruto moistened his lips nervously, his cerulean eyes darting over her face as if trying to judge something from her expression. "But I don't know how to say it."

"What is it?" she demanded impatiently. His tension was becoming contagious.

He took her by the shoulders, his expression deadly serious as he gazed intently into her eyes. Her muscles were becoming sore and they protested at the tightness of his hold.

"It's this…" he began earnestly.

But he got no further as a low, huskily pitched male voice interrupted.

"Naruto seems to think you're going to go into a state of shock when you find out I'm alive."

The floor rocked beneath her feet. Sakura managed a half turn on her treacherously unsteady footing, magnetically drawn to the voice. The whole floor seemed to give way when she saw its owner, yet she remained upright, her collapsing muscles supported by Naruto.

There was a dreamlike unreality to the moment.

Almost nightmare like, since it seemed a cruel joke for someone to stand in the doorway of the living room masquerading as Sasuke, mimicking his voice.

She stared wordlessly at the tall figure framed by the living-room doors. There was much about the chiseled features that resembled Sasuke – the carved cheek and jaw, the strong chin and classically straight nose.

Yet there were differences, too. The sun had burned this man's face a dusky tan, making it leathery and tough; giving hardness to features that in Sasuke had been suavely handsome. The eyes were the same dark eyes, but they wore a narrowed, hooded look as they seemed to pierce into the very marrow of her soul.

His hair was the same raven hair but its waving thickness was much longer than Sasuke had ever worn it, giving the impression of being rumpled instead of smoothly in place. As tall as Sasuke, this man's build was more muscled. Not that Sasuke had been a weakling by any means; it was just that this man seemed more developed without appearing heavier.

The differences registered with computer swiftness, her brain working while the rest of her was reeling from the similarities. The buzzing in her head continued nonstop, facts clicking into place.

But it wasn't her eyes that Sakura trusted. What finally let her to a conclusion was Naruto's peculiar behavior before this man appeared; his innate kindness, which would never permitted a cruel joke like this to be played on her; and the something that he was going to tell before they were interrupted.

Sasuke was alive. And he was standing in the doorway. She swayed forward, but her feet wouldn't move. Naruto's hands tightened in support and she turned her stunned gaze to him. The confirmation was there in his carefully watchful face.

"It's true," she breathed, neither a statement nor a question.

Naruto nodded, a silent warning in his eyes. It was then that Sakura felt the cold weight of his engagement ring around her finger and the blood drained from her face. Her hands reached out to cling to Naruto's arms, suddenly and desperately needing his support to remain upright.

"It seems Naruto was right," that familiar, lazy voice drawled in an arid tone. "My return is more of a shock to you than I thought it would be," Sasuke observed. The angle of his head shifted slightly to the side to direct his next words over his shoulder without releasing Sakura from his level gaze. "She needs some hot, sweet coffee, laced with a stiff shot of brandy."

"Exactly," Naruto agreed and curved a bracing arm around her waist.

"Let's find you a place to sit down, Sakura." Numbly, she accepted his help, aware of his gaze flickering to Sasuke. "Seeing you standing in the doorway was bound to have been like seeing a ghost. I told you we were all convinced you were dead."

"Not me," Mikoto contradicted him, moving to stand beside her son. "I always knew somehow that he was still alive somewhere out there, despite what everyone said."

Fleetingly, Sakura was aware of the blatant lie in her mother-in-law's assertion. The thought had barely formed when she realized there were others in the living room. She recognized the faces of close family friends, gathered to celebrate Sasuke's return. They had been watching the reunion between husband and wife – or rather the lack of it.

In that paralyzing second, Sakura realized she had not so much as touched Sasuke, let alone joyously fallen into his arms. Her one swaying attempt had been accidentally checked by Naruto's steady hold. It would seem staged and faked if she did so now.

Equally startling was the discovery that she would have to fake it because, although the man in front of her was obviously Uchiha Sasuke, he did not seem like the same man she had married. She felt as if she were looking at a total stranger. He knew what she was thinking and feeling; she could see it in the coolness of his expression, aloof and chilling.

As she and Naruto approached the doorway, Sasuke stepped to one side, giving them room. He smiled down at his mother, his expression revealing nothing to the others that might let them think he found her behavior unnatural under the circumstances.

"If you were so positive I was alive, mother, why are you wearing black?" he chided her.

Color rose in Mikoto's cheeks. "For your father, Sasuke," she responded, not at a loss for an explanation.

Everyone was still standing, watching, as Naruto guided Sakura to the empty cushions of the sofa. After she was seated, he automatically sat down beside her. Sasuke had followed them into the room.

Every nerve in Sakura's body was aware of his presence, although she wasn't able to lift her gaze to him. Guilt burned insider her, gnawing away at any spontaneous reaction she might have had. It didn't help when Sasuke sat down in the armchair nearest her end of the couch.

The housekeeper appeared, setting a cup and saucer on the wooden table in front of the sofa. "Here's your coffee, just the way Sasuke-sama ordered it."

"Thank you." She murmured. She reached for the cup filled with steaming dark liquid, but her hands were shaking like aspen leaves and she couldn't hold on to it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a suggestion of movement from Sasuke, as if he was about to lean forward to help her. Naruto's hand was already there, lifting the cup to carry it to her lips. It was purely an automatic reaction to Naruto's part. He had become used to doing things for her in the past two and a half years, just as Sakura had become used to having him do them.

Instinctively, she knew he hadn't told Sasuke of their engagement and she doubted if anyone else had. But Naruto's solicitous concern was telling its own story. And behind the façade of lazy interest, Sasuke was absorbing every damning detail. Without knowing it, Naruto was making matters worse.

The hot and sweetly potent liquid Sakura sipped eased the constriction strangling her voice and she found the strength to raise her hesitant gaze to Sasuke's.

"How…" she began self-consciously. "I mean when…"

"I walked out of the forest two weeks ago." He anticipated her question and answered it.

"Two weeks ago?" That was before she had agreed to marry Naruto. "Why didn't you let…someone know?"

"It was difficult to convince the authorities that I was who I claimed to be. They, too, believed I was dead." There was a slashing line to his mouth, a cynical smile. "It must have been easier for Lazarus back in the Biblical days to return from the dead."

"Are you positive I can't fix you a drink, Sasuke-sama?" the housekeeper inquired. "A tea?"

"Nothing, thank you."

Sakura frowned. In the past, Sasuke had always drunk two, if not three teas before dinner. She had not been wrong. There were more than just surface changes in him during the last two and a half years. Unconsciously, she covered her hand with her right, hiding not only the wedding Sasuke had given her, but Naruto's engagement ring, as well.

"The instant they believed Sasuke's story," his mother inserted to carry on his explanation. "he immediately come home." She beamed at him like the adoring and doting mother that she was.

"You should have phoned." Sakura couldn't help saying it. Forewarned, she might have been prepared for the new Uchiha Sasuke.

"I did."

Simultaneously as he spoke, Sakura remembered the telephone ringing in the dawn hour as she had left the house. Seconds. She had missed knowing about his return by seconds.

"I'd switched off my extention," Uchiha Mikoto said, "and our housekeeper was wearing earplugs. Did you hear it, Sakura?"

"No. No, I'd already left," answered Sakura.

"When Sasuke didn't get any answer here," Naruto continued the story, "he called me."

"Naruto was stunned as you were, Sakura," Sasuke smiled, but Sakura suspected that she was the only one who noticed the lack of amusement in his voice. She knew her gaze wavered under the keenness of his.

"I came over right away to let you and Mikoto-san know," Naruto finished.

"Where were you, Sakura?" Uchiha Oda grumped. He was Sasuke's godfather and a very old friend of both Mikoto and Fugaku Uchiha. "Naruto has been half out of his mind worrying about where you were all day. Played hooky from the office, did you?"

"I was at the marina," she answered, and turned to Sasuke. "The _Stargazer_ has been leased to a couple and they plan to sail it to Water country. I spent the day cleaning it up and moving out all of your things."

"What a pity!" Uchiha Oda sympathized, slapping the arm of his chair. "You always did love going out on that boat. Now, the very day you come home, it's being turned over to someone else."

"It's only a boat, Oda-san" There was an enigmatic darkness to his eyes that made his true thoughts impossible to see.

To Sakura, in her supersensitive state, he seemed to be implying something else. Perhaps, he didn't object to his boat being loaned to someone else – as long as it wasn't his wife. Her apprehension mounted.

"You're right!" the older man agreed with another emphatic slap of his hand on the armchair. "It's only a boat. And what's that compared to having you back? It's a miracle! A miracle!"

The statement brought a surfeit of questions for Sasuke to answer about the crash and the events that followed. Sakura listened to his narrative. Each word that came from his mouth made him seem more and more a stranger.

The small chartered plane had developed engine trouble and had crashed in the teeming jungle. When Sasuke had come to, the other people aboard were dead and he was trapped in the twisted wreckage with a broken leg and a few broken ribs. There had been a deep gash on his forehead, still seeping blood and other cuts and bruises. Sakura's gaze found the scar that had made a permanent crease in his forehead.

Sasuke didn't go into too much detail about how he had got out of the plane the following day, but Sakura had a vivid imagination and pictured the agony he must have endured fighting his way out with his injuries, letting the wreckage become a coffin for the mangled lifeless bodies of the others. Not knowing when or if he would be rescued, Sasuke had been forced to set his own leg.

That was something Sakura couldn't visualize him doing. In the past, when there was anything that required professional skill or experience, Sasuke had always hired someone to do it. So for him to set his own broken bone, regardless of the dire circumstances, seemed completely out of character, something the man she had known would never have done.

When the emergency supply of rations from the plane had run out, Sasuke had foraged for his food, his diet consisting of fruits and whatever wild animals he could trap, catch or kill. And this was supposed to be the same Uchiha Sasuke who had considered killing of wild game of disgusting sport and who dined on gourmet cuisine.

Sasuke, who despised flies and mosquitoes, told of the insects that swarmed in the forest, flying, crawling, biting, stinging, until he no longer noticed them. The heat and humidity of the forest rotted his shoes and clothes, forcing him to improvise articles of clothing...

As he began his tale of more than two-year long walk out of the forest, Sakura discovered the crux of the difference. Sasuke had left as a civilized man and had come back part primitive. She stared at him with seeing eyes.

Leaning back in his chair, he looked indolent and relaxed, yet Sakura knew his muscles were like coiled springs, always ready to react with the swiftness of a predatory animal. His senses, his nerves were alert to everything going on around him. Nothing escaped the notice of that hooded dark gaze. From the lurking depths of those hard black eyes, Sasuke seemed to be viewing them all with cynical amusement, as if he found the so-called dangers and problems of their civilized world laughable when compared to the battle of survival he had fought and won.

"There's something I don't understand," Uchiha Oda commented, frowning when Sasuke had completed his basically sketchy narrative. "Why did the authorities you were dead after they'd found the wreckage? Surely, they must have discovered there was a body missing," he added bluntly.

"I don't imagine they did," Sasuke answered in a calm, matter-of-fact tone.

"Did you bury their bodies, Sasuke?" his mother asked. "Is that why they didn't find them?"

"No, mother, I didn't." The cynical amusement that Sakura suspected he felt was there, glittering through the dark shutters of the indulgent look he gave his mother. "It would have taken a long time to carve out a grave in that tangled mess of brush, trees and roots. I had no choice but to leave them in the plane. Unfortunately, the forest is filled with scavengers."

Sakura blanched. He sounded so cold and insensitive! Sasuke had been passionately vital and volatile man, quick to fly into a temper and quick to love.

What had he become? How much would the savagery in his life in the last two and a half years influence his future? Would his determination become ruthlessness? Would his innate leadership become tyranny? Would his compassion for others become contempt? Would his love turn to lust? Was he a virile man or a male animal? He was her husband and Sakura shuddered at what the answers to those questions might be.

Distantly, she heard the housekeeper enter the room to inquire, "What time would you like dinner served this evening, Mikoto-sama?"

There was hesitation before Mikoto replied, "In about an hour. That will be all right for everyone, won't it?" And received a murmur of agreement.

From the sofa cushions beside her, Naruto expanded on his agreement to remark, "That will give you ample time to freshen up before dinner, won't it, Sakura-chan?"

She clutched at the lifeline he had unknowingly tossed her. "Yes, it wil." She wanted desperately to be alone for a few minutes to sort through her jumbled thoughts, terribly afraid she was over-reacting. Rising, she addressed her words to everyone, "Please excuse me. I won't be long."

Sakura had the disquieting sensation of Sasuke's eyes following her as she walked from the room. But he made no attempt to stop her, nor offer her to come with her to share a few minutes alone, much to her relief.

* * *

**A/N:** Whew! At last this chapter is done. Sasuke has appeared in this chapter and what had happened to him during the last two and a half years is finally revealed. What will now happen to Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto? Better wait for the next chapter. Please review.

Here's a short preview of the next chapter:

"_This is some homecoming, a wife who wishes I were still in the grave!"_

"_Sasuke, it's been two and a half years."_

"_I don't know you anymore. You're a stranger to me."_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Sorry for the long wait. I've been sick for the past 2 weeks and still recuperating until now. Thanks to all those who read and reviewed this story. Also, special thanks to my brother who spare me his time to check this chapter for errors. Here's chapter 4. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto. The only characters I own here are the OOC's.

**Rating:** T for Teens (Ratings may change)

**Age of Characters: **

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.

Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old

**Summary: **Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?

* * *

The brief shower had washed away the last lingering traces of unreality. Wrapping the sash to her royal blue terry-cloth robe around her middle, Sakura walked through the open doorway of the private bath to her bedroom. She moved to the clothes closet at the far corner of the room to choose what she would wear for dinner, all the while trying to assure herself that she was making mountains out of molehills where Sasuke was concerned.

There was a click and then movement in her peripheral vision. She turned as the door opened and Sasuke walked in. Her mouth opened to order out the intruder then closed. He was her husband. How could she order him out of their bedroom?

His gaze swept the room, located her and stopped; fixing her with a stare like a predator would his prey. Her fingers clasped the folds of her robe at the throat, her palms moistening with nervous perspiration. Sakura was conscious of the implied intimacy of the room and her own nakedness beneath the terry-cloth material. Blood pounded in her head like a thousand jungle drums signaling danger. Vulnerable, she was wary of him.

The brand new tan suit and tie he wore gave him a cultured look, but she wasn't taken in by the thin veneer of refinement. It didn't conceal the latent power of that muscled physique, nor soften the rough edges of his sun-hardened features. Sasuke closed the door, not releasing her from his pinning gaze and searing alarm halted her breath.

"I've come through hell to get back to you, Sakura, yet you can't seem to walk across a room to meet me." The accusation was made in a smooth, low tone rife with sardonic amusement.

His words prodded her into movement. Too much time had elapsed since his return for her to rush into his arms. Her steps were stiff, her back rigid as she approached him. She was cautious of him and it showed. Even if she wanted to, she doubted if she could batter down the wall of reserve she had erected. Stopping in front of him, she searched her mind for welcoming words that she could issue sincerely.

"I'm glad you came back safely," were the ones she could offer that had the ring of truth.

Sasuke waited…for her kiss. The muscles in her stomach contracted sharply with the realization. After a second's hesitation, she forced herself on tiptoe to bring her lips against his mouth in a cool kiss. His large hands spanned the back of her waist, their imprint burning through the material onto her naked flesh. His light touch didn't seem at all familiar. It was almost alien.

At her first attempt to end the kiss, his arms became a vise, fingers raking into her pink hair to force her lips to his. He slender curves were pressed against the hard contours of his body. Her heartbeat skittered madly then accelerated in alarm.

The hungry demand of his bruising mouth asked more than Sakura could give to a man who seemed more of a stranger than her husband. She struggled to free herself of his iron hold and was surprised when Sasuke let her twist away.

Her breathing was rapid and uneven as she avoided his eyes. "I have to get dressed." She pretended that was her reason for rejecting his embrace. "The others are waiting downstairs."

Those fathomless dark eyes were boring holes into her. Sakura could feel them even as she turned away to retrace her steps to the closet and her much-needed clothes. Her knees felt watery.

"You mean Naruto is waiting," Sasuke corrected her with deadly softness.

Her blood ran cold. "Of course. Isn't Naruto with the others?" She felt ignorance of his meaning and immediately regretted not taking advantage of the opening he had given her to tell him about Naruto.

"I've had two and a half years of forced celibacy, Sakura. How about you?" The dry contempt in his question spun her around, fires of indignation flashing in her eyes, but Sasuke didn't give her a chance to defend her honor. "How long was it after I disappeared before Naruto moved in?"

"He did not move in!" she flashed.

With the swiftness of a swooping hawk, he seized her left hand. His savage grip almost crushed the slender bones of her fingers into a pulp, drawing a gasp of pain from her.

"Figuratively speaking!" His mouth was a thin, cruel line as he lifted her hand. "Or don't you call it moving in when another man's ring joins the ones put on your finger? Did you think I would not see it?" he blazed. "Did you think I wouldn't notice the looks the two of you were exchanging and the way all the others watched the three of us?" He released her hand in a violent gesture of disgust. Sakura nursed the pain-numbed fingers, cradling them in her right hand. "And neither of you had the guts to tell me!"

"Neither of us really had a chance," she responded defensively, her temper flaring from the flame of his. "It isn't an announcement one wants to make in front of others. What was I supposed to say when I saw you standing in the doorway, a husband I thought I was dead? 'Oh, Sasuke-kun, I'm so glad you're alive. Oh, by the way, I'm engaged to another man.' Please credit me for having a bit more delicacy than that!"

He gave her a long, hard look. His anger was so tightly controlled that it almost frightened her. It was like looking at a capped volcano, knowing that inside it was erupting, and wondering when the lid would blow.

"This is some homecoming," Sasuke declared in a contemptuous breath. "A wife who wishes I was still in the grave!"

"I don't wish that," she denied.

"This engagement–" he began, bitter sarcasm coating his words.

"The way you say it makes it sound like something sordid," Sakura protested, "and it isn't. Naruto and I have been engaged for barely more than a week. At the time that he proposed to me, I thought you were dead and I was free to accept."

"Now you know differently. I am alive. You are my wife, not my widow. You're still married to me." The way he said it, in such cold concise tones, made it sound like a life sentence.

Sakura was trembling and she didn't know why. "I'm aware of that, Sasuke." Her voice was taut to keep out the tremors. "But this isn't the time to discuss the situation. Your mother is waiting dinner and I still have to get dressed."

For a few harrowing seconds, she thought he was going to argue. "Yes," he agreed slowly, "this is not the time."

She heard the door being yanked open and flinched as it was slammed shut. If this was a new beginning for their marriage, it was off to a rotten start. They had argued before Sasuke had disappeared, and now war had nearly been declared on his return. Sakura shuddered and walked to the closet again.

Her arrival downstairs coincided with their housekeeper's announcement that dinner would be served. Sasuke was there to escort her into the formal dining room. A chandelier of cut crystal and polished brass hung above the table, glittering down on the tablecloth set with the best of his mother's silver and china. An elaborate floral arrangement sat in the center of the buffet, not too near the table so its scent would not interfere with the aroma of the food. Sasuke was being warmly welcomed home, by everyone but her, and Sakura was painfully conscious of the fact.

As they all took their chairs around the Uchiha's dining table, the tension in the air was almost electrical. Yet Sakura seemed to be the only one who noticed it. Sasuke sat at the head of the table, the place of honor, with his mother at the opposite end and Naruto seated on her right. Sakura sat on Sasuke's left.

Ever since she had come down, Sasuke had possessively kept her at his side, as if showing everyone that she was his and effectively separating her from Naruto. On the surface, he seemed all smiles, at times giving her glimpses of his former devastating charm. But there was directed to her.

When everyone was seated, the housekeeper came in carrying a tureen of soup. "I fixed your favorite, Sasuke-sama," she announced, a beaming smile on her square-jawed face. "Tomato soup."

"Thank you." He smiled broadly. "Now that's the way to welcome a man home!"

The sharp side of his double-edged remark sliced at Sakura. She paled at the censure, but otherwise retained a firm hold on her poise.

The meal was an epicurean's delight, from the soup to the lobster thermidor to the ambrosia of fresh fruit. Sasuke made all the right comments and compliments, but Sakura noticed he didn't seem to savor the taste of various dishes the way she remembered he had in the past. She had the impression that dining had been reduced to the simple matter of eating. Food was food however it was prepared and man needed food to live.

Coffee was served in the living room so the housekeeper could clear away the dishes. Again, Sakura was kept at Sasuke's elbow. Naruto was on the far side of the room. As she glanced his way, he looked up, clear blue eyes meeting the green shade of hers. He murmured a quick excuse to the older woman who had him cornered–an old school friend of Uchiha Mikoto–and made his way toward her.

Through the cover of her lashes, Sakura dared a glance at Sasuke and saw the faint narrowing of his gaze as Naruto approached. The smile on Naruto's face was strained when he stopped in front of them. Sakura guessed he was trying to find a way to tell Sasuke of their engagement and she wished there was a way to let him know that Sasuke was aware of it.

"It seems like old times, Sasuke," Naruto began, forcing a camaraderie into his voice, "coming over to your house for dinner and seeing you and…" His gaze slide nervously to Sakura.

"Naruto," Sasuke interrupted calmly, "Sakura has told me about your engagement."

The room grew so quiet Sakura was certain a feather could have been heard dropping on the floor. All eyes were focused on the trio, as if a brilliant spotlight were shining on them. She discovered that, like everyone else, she was holding her breath. After the savage anger Sasuke had displayed upstairs, she wasn't sure what might happen next.

"I'm glad you know. I…" Naruto lowered his gaze searching for words.

Sasuke filled in the moment's pause. "I want you to know that I don't bear any ill feelings. You've always been a good friend and I'd like it to continue that way." Sakura started to sigh with relief. "After all, what are friends for?"

No one except Sakura seemed to pay any attention to last caustic comment. Naruto was too busy shaking the hand Sasuke offered in friendship. The others were murmuring among themselves about the moment for which they had been waiting all day.

"Naturally, the engagement is broken," Sasuke joked with a smile that contrasted with the sharply serious light in his eyes.

"Naturally," Naruto agreed with an answering smile.

And Sakura felt a rush of anger that she could be tossed aside so readily without protest. For that matter, she hadn't even been consulted about her wishes.

Immediately, she berated herself. It was what she wanted. Sasuke was alive and she was married to him. She didn't want to divorce him to marry Naruto, so why was she fussing? A simple matter of ego, she decided.

After the confrontation over the engagement, the party became anticlimactic. There was a steady trickle of departures among the guests. One minute Sakura was wishing Mikoto's old friend and the next she was alone in the foyer with Sasuke, his eyes watching her in that steady, measured way she found so unnerving.

"That's the last of them," he announced.

Sakura glanced around. "Where's your mother?"

"In the living room helping our housekeeper clean up."

"I'll give them a hand." She started to turn away.

But Sasuke caught her arm. "There's no need." He released it as quickly as he had captured it. "They can handle it by themselves."

Sakura didn't protest. They had been unconsciously long and she felt enervated from the physical and mental stress she had experienced. What she really wanted was a long night of hard, dreamless sleep. She started for the stairs, half aware that Sasuke was following.

"You did not return Naruto's ring," he reminded her in a flat tone.

Raising her left hand, she glanced at the flowerlike circlet of diamonds.

"No, I…must have forgotten." She was too tired at this point to care about such a small detail.

When she started to lower her hand, Sasuke seized it and stripped the ring from her finger before she could react to stop him. He gave it a careless toss onto the polished mahogany table standing against the foyer wall.

"You can't leave valuable things lying around!" Sakura instantly retrieved it, clutching it in her hand as she frowned at him–Sasuke, who insisted there was a place for everything and everything in its place.

"Valuable to whom?" he questioned with cool arrogance.

Her fingers tightened around the ring. "I'll keep it in my room until I can give it back to him." She waited for him to challenge her decision. When he didn't, she walked to the stairs.

"He'll be over tomorrow," Sasuke stated, speaking from directly behind her. "You can give it to him then."

"What time is he coming?" Sakura climbed the stairs knowing she was loath to return the ring when Sasuke was around, but he seemed to be leaving her little opinion.

"At ten for Sunday brunch."

At the head of the stairs, Sakura turned. Her bedroom was the first door on the right. She walked to it only to have Sasuke's arm reach around her to open the door. She stopped abruptly as he pushed it open, her look bewildered.

"What are you doing?" She frowned.

"I'm going to bed." An eyebrow flickered upward as he eyed her coolly. "Where did you think I was going to sleep?"

She looked away, her gaze darting madly around. She was thrown into a trembling state of confusion by his taunting question. "I didn't think about it," she faltered. "I guess I have become used to sleeping alone."

His hand was at the small of her back, firmly directing her into the room. "Surely you don't expect that to continue?"

"I…" Oh, God, yes she did, Sakura realized with a frozen start. "I think it might be better…for a while." She stopped in the center of the room and turned her face to him as he closed the door.

"You do?" inscrutable black eyes met her wavering look, his leathery carved features expressionless.

"Yes, I do."

Her nerves were leaping around as erratically as jumping beans, not helped by the palpitating beat of her heart. She watched with growing apprehension as Sasuke peeled off his suit jacket and tie and began unbuttoning his shirt.

She tried to reason with him, her voice quivering. "Sasuke, it's been two and a half years."

"Tell me about it," he insisted dryly.

Her throat tightened to make her voice small. "I don't know you anymore. You're a stranger to me."

"That can be changed."

"You aren't trying to understand, Sasuke." Sakura fought to keep control of herself. "I can't just hop into bed with–"

"Your husband?" He finished the sentence, and gave her a searing look.

"Who else would you choose?"

"Naruto?"

The shirt was coming off; exposing a naked chest and shoulder tanned the same dusky shade as his face. The result heightened Sakura's impression of a primitive male, powerful and dangerous, sinewy muscles rippling in the artificial light.

Her senses catapulted in alarm as she felt the force of his earthly, pagan attraction. In an attempt to break the black magic of its spell, she turned away, walking stiffly to her dresser to place Naruto's ring in her jewel case.

"No one. That isn't what I meant." She remained at the dresser, her hands flattened on its top, knuckles showing white. He came up behind her and she lifted her gaze. In the dressing-table mirror her wary eyes saw his reflection join with hers. "You've become hard, Sasuke, a cynic," she said accusingly. "I can imagine what you've gone through…."

"Can you?" He challenged. There was a faint curl of his lip. "Can you imagine how many nights I held onto my sanity by clinging to the vision of a green eyed woman with silky pink hair?" His fingers twined themselves through the loose strands of her pink hair and Sakura closed her eyes at the savage note in his voice. "Roughly nine hundred and twenty-two nights. And when I finally see her again, she's clinging to the arm of my best friend. Is it any wonder that I am hard, bitter, when I have been waiting all this time for her lips to kiss away the gnawing memory of those hours? Did you even miss me, Sakura?" With a handful of hair as leverage, he twisted her around to face him. "Did you grieve?"

Her eyes smarted with tears she refused to shed at the tugging pain in her scalp. "When you first disappeared, Sasuke, I was nearly beside myself with fear. But your mother, Mikoto-san, was even distraught–losing her husband then possibly you. I had to spend most of my time comforting her. Then the company started to fall apart at the seams and Naruto insisted I had to take over or it would fail. So I was plunged headfirst into another world. During the day I was too busy to think about myself, and at night there was your mother depending on me to be her strength. The only moments I had alone were in this room. And I took sleeping pills so I would get enough rest to be able to get through another day. To be truthful, Sasuke, I didn't have time to grieve."

He was unmoved by her words, his dark eyes flat and cold. "But you had time for Naruto," he accused her with icy calm.

Sakura winced as the point of his arrow found its target. "It began very innocently. He was your closest friend so it was natural that he kept in touch with your mother and me. Later, there was the company connection. He was always there, bolstering me, encouraging me, and offering me a shoulder to lean on the odd moments that I need it, without mauling me in return," she explained, refusing to sound guilty. "It grew from there after you were reported killed. I needed him."

"And I need you–now." He drew her inside the steel circle of his hands, flattening her against his chest. The hard feel of his naked flesh beneath her hands rocked her senses. The warmth of his breath wafted over her averted face, the musky scent of his arm enveloping her. She pushed at his arms, straining to break out of his hold.

"You haven't listened to a word I've said!" she stormed angrily, inwardly battling against his physical arousal of her senses. "You have _changed_. _I_ have changed. We need time to adjust!"

"Adjust to what?" Sasuke snapped. "The differences between a man and a woman? Those are differences we could discover and compensate for very quickly." The zipper of her dress was instantly undone.

"Stop it!" She struggled to keep him from sliding the dress of her shoulders. "You're making me feel like an animal!"

"You are." The words were issued in a cold, insensitive tone.

Hysterical laughter gurgled in her throat. Sakura choked on the sound.

"Shut up!" He growled the order against her mouth and smothered the sounds when she refused to obey.

Leaning and twisting backward, Sakura tried to escape the domination of his kiss, but his hands used the attempt to mold her lower body more fully to his length, her hipbones crushed by oak-solid thighs. The silk of her slip was a second skin, concealing and revealing while callused fingers moved roughly around in exploration.

Cruelly, Sasuke ravaged the softness of her lips. Sakura thought her neck would snap under his driving force. Beneath her straining hands she felt the flexing of his muscles, smooth like hammered steel, latent in their sensuality. He was devouring her strength by degrees, slowly and steadily wearing her down. Doubling her fingers, she began hammering at him with her fists, hard blows that had little effect on Sasuke.

The effort seemed to use up the reserves of her strength. Within seconds, blackness swam in front of her eyes and a dizzying weakness spread through her limbs. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and she clung to him to keep from falling into the yawning abyss that seemed to be opening in front of her.

As her resistance ebbed into nothingness, so did the brutality of his assault. The terrible bruising pressure of his mouth eased, permitting Sakura to straighten her neck. Gradually, she began to surface from the waves of semi-consciousness, enough to become aware of his loosened hold.

With a determined effort, she broke out of his arms. Gasping in air in panicked breaths, she backed away from him, her knees quivering. Sasuke swayed toward her then stopped. A second later, she realized why, as her retreat was stopped short by a wall. A cornered animal, she stared at the man who held her at bay. A stranger who was her husband.

She lifted her head, summoning all her pride to beg. "Don't do this, Sasuke."

Slow, silent strides carried him to her and she didn't accept to flee. There was no mercy in his eyes and she would not submit to the ignominy of cowering. Her resistance became passive as he undressed, her eyes tightly closed.

Sakura paled as she remembered, too. A flicker of the old searing fire licked through her veins as he drew to him and her bare curves came in contact with his nude body. The tiny flame couldn't catch hold, not when the hands fanning it were callused and rough instead of the smooth hands that had once brought it to a full blaze.

"Don't destroy our marriage," she whispered. "I want to love you again, Sasuke."

With a muffled imprecation, he buried his face in her hair. "Damn! Why didn't you say that when I came home?" he muttered thickly in a rasping sound that suggested pain. "Why did you have to wait until now?"

"Would it have mattered?" Sakura caught back a sob.

"It might have then," effortlessly, he swung her feet into his arms, his jaw set in a ruthless line. "I couldn't care less now. You're mine and I mean to have you."

The overhead light was switched off, throwing the room into darkness. As if guided by animal instinct, Sasuke carried her to the bed. Without bothering to pull down the covers, he laid her on the bed and towered beside it.

"Sasuke." There was an unspoken plea in the way she spoke his name, a last attempt to make him understand her unwillingness.

"No," he answered, and the mattress sagged under his weight. "Don't ask me to wait." His low voice was commanding near her ear, his breath stirring her hair. "It's been too long."

_And we both have changed_, Sakura thought, stiffening at the moist touch of his mouth along her neck. _Can't you see the differences, Sasuke? Physical as well as mental. Haven't you noticed I am wearing my hair longer?_ As his hand slid over her ribs, to cup her breast, she remembered when the roundness had filled it. Now, with maturity, it overflowed.

But Sasuke seemed intent on discovering the ripeness of her female form, ignoring comparisons. His caressing hands roamed over her with intimate familiarity and she felt her body responding, reluctantly at first. A series of long, drugging kisses soon made her mind blank to all but the demands of her flesh.

Her senses took over, reigning supreme. She gloried in the taste of his lips probing the sensual hollows of her mouth and the brush of his muscled chest was enough to harden her nipples into erotic pebbles.

The rapidly increasing throb of her pulse was in tempo with the pagan beat of his, building to a climax. And the heady male scent of him, heightened by perspiration and his rising body heat, served to stimulate all her senses until she was filled with nothing but him.

For a time she glimpsed heights she had thought she would never see again. Sasuke sought all the places that brought her the most pleasure, waiting until she moaned his name in final surrender.

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Sakura lay in bed, the covers pulled up to her neck, but she knew the blankets couldn't warm the chill. Her passion spent, she felt cold and empty inside as she stared upward into the darkness of the room. A tear was frozen on an eyelash.

Physically, her desires had been satisfied by Sasuke's skilled knowledge, but she had not been lifted to the rapturous heights of a spiritual union. That only happened when there was loved involved. Tonight, it had been merely a mutual satisfaction of sexual desires. And that special something had been missing eliminated the warm afterglow Sakura had previously known.

Sasuke was beside her, their bodies not touching. An arm was flung on the pillow above his head. She could hear the steady sound of his breathing, but doubted that he was asleep. Her sideway's glance sought his carved profile in the din light. There seemed to be a grim line to his mouth, as if he was experiencing the same reaction.

As if feeling her look and hearing her question, he said in a low, flat voice, "There's one argument you didn't make, Sakura. If you had, it might have prevented this disillusionment."

"What is it?" she asked in a tight, throbbing voice, longing to know what it was so she could keep this from happening again.

"The real thing can't match two and a half years of expectations."

_No_, she agreed silently, _not when there are no words of love exchanged, no mating of our hearts nor coming together of our souls._ It had been an act of lust, born out of anger and frustration.

"Passion never can, Sasuke," she murmured.

He tossed aside the blanket draped across his waist and swung his feet to the floor. Her head turned on the pillow to stare at him in the darkness.

"Where are you going?" she asked softly. Something told her that if Sasuke would hold her in his arms, the aching void inside her might close.

There was a faint sheen to his sun-browned skin in the shadowy light. She could make out the breadth of his shoulders and the back muscles tapering to his waist. His steps were soundless, silent animal strides.

"Another unfortunate discovery I've made since returning to civilization is that the mattresses are too soft." He spoke in a low voice, a biting, cynical tone. "I'm used to firm beds. That's what comes from spending too many nights sleeping in trees and on hard ground."

She lost him in the darkness and propped herself up on an elbow, keeping the covers tightly around her. "Where are you going?"

"To find spare blanket and a hard floor." There was the click of the door being opened. "You have part of your wish, Sakura," he added caustically. "The bed is yours. You can sleep alone."

As the door closed, a convulsive shudder ran through her. She turned her face into the pillow, curling her body into a tight ball of pain. With eyes squeezed shut, she lay there, aching for the forgetfulness of sleep.

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**A/N:** End of chapter. Hmm...I have nothing else to say. I'm such a boring person. Haha. Lol.

Please review.

~fallenleaves142~


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Hi guys! Sorry for the very late update. A lot has happened that prevented me from updating my stories. There's some personal matters to attend to here and there, trips, sports event, work, family gatherings, etc. Oh, BTW, I've changed my username from fallenleaves142 to EthiopianPrincess. I don't know but the feeling just came to me and the name just pop out in my mind. Enough of that. Just enjoy reading this chapter and please leave a comment after reading it. I want to know your thoughts about this story and if this story is worth continuing.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. The only characters I own here are the OOC's. Yes, that includes our loveable and hardworking housekeeper.

**Rating:** T for Teens (Ratings may change)

**Age of Characters: **

Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke – 21 years old.

Uchiha Mikoto – 40 years old

**Summary:** Non-massacre AU. Sasuke had been missing in the forest for 2 years. When he returned, Sakura had just gotten engaged to his best friend. The years apart had changed them both. Could they make their marriage work again?

* * *

A hand gently but persistently shook her shoulders. "Sakura-sama? Wake up, please." Sakura stirred, lashes fluttering as she tried to figure out whether she was imagining the voice. "Wake up, Sakura-sama!"

But she wasn't imagining the hand on her arm. Her head throbbed dully as she opened her eyes and rolled over, dragging the covers with her. Her sleepy gaze focused on the agitated expression of the housekeeper hovering above her.

Sakura became conscious of several things at once: the rumpled pillow beside her where Sasuke had lain so briefly, her own naked state beneath the covers and the clothes scattered around the room – hers and Sasuke's. _My God, the room is a mess,_ she thought.

"What is it?" she questioned, trying to maintain a measure of composure despite the surge of embarrassment.

The older woman bit her lip as if uncertain how to reply. "It's Sasuke-sama."

The anxious look on the housekeeper's face brought an instant reaction as Sakura propped herself up on her elbows, concern chasing away the remnants of sleep. "Sasuke? What's wrong? Has something happened to him?"

"No…it's…it's just that he's sleeping downstairs–on the floor in the library." A dull red was creeping up on her neck into her cheeks. "And he isn't wearing any…any clothes."

Sakura swallowed back a smile, her relief lost in amusement. _Poor housekeeper_, she thought, _never married in her life nor seriously close to it and probably shocked to her prim core when she found her master sleeping in the library in the altogether._

"I see," she nodded and tried to keep her face straight.

"Naruto-sama will be arriving in just more than an hour." The woman was trying desperately to avoid looking at the bareness of Sakura's shoulders. "I thought you should be the one to…to wake up Sasuke-sama."

"I will," said Sakura and started to rise then decided against adding to the housekeeper's embarrassment. "Would you hand me my robe at the foot of the bed?"

After handling the robe to her, the housekeeper turned discreetly away while Sakura slipped into it. "Mikoto-sama had a few things sent over yesterday for Sasuke-sama," she informed Sakura. "There are pajamas and a robe. I put them in the empty closet."

"I'll take them to him." Sakura finished tying the sash of her robe. "And tomorrow, I think you'd better make arrangement with Mikoto-san to purchase a bed with a very firm mattress, one that's as hard as a rock."

"I will," the housekeeper promised as if taking an oath. "Sorry to have awakened you, Sakura-sama."

"That's quite all right," Sakura answered, smiling.

With a brief self-conscious nod, the housekeeper left the room. Sakura put on her slippers and walked to the small closet Sakura had indicated. It was used mostly for storage. Amid the few boxes and garment bags hung three shirts and a brown suit. On the two inside door hooks were the pajamas and matching dressing robe in a muted shade of strawberry silk. Leaving the pajamas, Sakura took the robe.

Downstairs, her hand hesitated on the knob of the library door. Tension hammered in her temples and her stomach was twisted into knots. Steeling herself to ignore the attack of nervousness, she opened the door quietly and walked in. Her gaze was directed first to the floor and its open area around the fireplace.

"Our housekeeper sent in the reserves, I see," Sasuke's male voice mocked from the side of the room.

Sakura turned in its direction and saw him standing near the solid wall of shelves filled with books. A dark blue blanket was wrapped around his waist, his naked torso gleaming in that deep shade of tan. Fingers had combed his thick jet black hair into a semblance of order, a suggestion of unruliness remaining. Sakura's pulse fluctuated in alarm, her head lifted as if seeing danger. Her looked like a primitive native, proud, noble and savage.

"Did you hear her come in?" She realized it was a foolish question after she had asked it. Those long months in the forest had to have sharpened his senses, making them more acute.

"Yes, but I decided it was wiser to pretend I was still asleep rather than shock her sensibilities," he admitted with cynical derision. "I thought she would scamper up the stairs to inform you or my mother of my lewd behavior."

Behind his veiled look Sakura felt the dark intensity of his gaze scanning her face–searching for something, but she didn't know what. It made her uncomfortable and she wished she had dressed before coming down.

"I brought you a robe." She held it out to him aware of the faint trembling that wasn't yet visible.

"No doubt at the housekeeper's suggestion. She must have been more shocked than I thought." But Sasuke made no move toward it, forcing Sakura to walk to him.

"Our housekeeper isn't accustomed to finding naked men sleeping on the library floor," she said, defending the housekeeper's reaction and discovering a similar one in herself as Sasuke reached down and unwrap the blanket from around his waist. Self-consciously she averted her eyes, her color mounting as if it were a stranger undressing in front of her instead of her husband.

There was a rustle of silk then, "It's safe to look now," Sasuke taunted, his mouth curving in ungentle mockery.

She flashed him an angry look for drawing attention to her sudden burst of mockery and turned away. The vein in her neck pulsed with a nervousness that she wasn't able to control. His hand touched her shoulder and she flinched from the searing contact.

"For God's sake, Sakura, I'm not going to rape you!" he cursed beneath his breath. "Dammit, can't I even touch my wife?"

Her eyes were wide and wary as she looked over her shoulder at his fiercely burning gaze. "I don't feel like your wife, Sasuke," she said tightly. "I don't feel as if I am married to you."

Immediately the fires were banked in his eyes, that freezing control that was so unlike him coming into play. "You are married to me," he stated and walked by her to the door. Opening it, he called, "Bring some coffee into the library for my _wife_ and myself." With emphasis on the word "wife."

"Naruto is coming and I still have to dress." Sakura reminded him, objecting to spending more minutes alone with him.

"He isn't due for an hour," Sasuke said, dismissing her protest, and walked to the leather-covered sofa, pausing beside its end table to lift the lid of the ceramic cigarette box. "You want?" He flicked a questioning glance in her direction.

"No, I don't smoke. Remember?" she said with a faintly taunting arch to her voice.

"You might have acquired the habit during my absence," he shrugged.

"I didn't."

Brisk footsteps in the foyer signaled the housekeeper's approach. Seconds later she entered the library with a coffee service and two cups on the tray she carried. A pink tint was still rouging her cheeks as the housekeeper steadfastly avoided looking directly at Sasuke.

"Where would you like the tray?" she asked Sakura.

"The table by the sofa will be fine."

Sasuke carried the ceramic lighter to the cigarette in his mouth and snapped the flame to its tip. Smoke spiraled upward and he squinted his eyes against it. Despite his show of disinterest, Sakura knew he was aware of the housekeeper's every movement. After setting the tray on the table at the opposite end of the sofa from where Sasuke stood, the housekeeper straightened up erectly.

"Will there be anything else?" Again her query was directed to Sakura.

It was Sasuke who answered. "That will be all," he said exhaling a thin trail of smoke. "And close the door on your way out."

"Yes, sir." Two red flags dotted her cheeks.

As their housekeeper made a hasty exit, firmly closing the door, Sasuke walked to the tray. Lifting the coffee pot, he filled the two cups and offered one to Sakura.

"Black, as I remember, with no sugar," he said in a tone that baited.

"Yes, thank you." Sakura refused to bite as she took the cup and saucer from his hand.

Scalding steam rose from the brown liquid and Sasuke let his cup sit. He studied the glowing tip of his cigarette and the gossamer-thin white smoke rising upward. A wry smile crooked his mouth.

"I'd forgotten how good a cigarette can taste first thing in the morning," he mused.

Sakura felt as edgy as a cat with its tail caught in a vise. She couldn't help retorting, "I thought you haven't forgotten anything."

"Not the important things, I haven't," Sasuke replied, levelly meeting her irritated glance.

With a broken sigh, she wandered to the library window overlooking the expansive front lawn of the house and its driveway. She was caught by the memory of the last time she had stared out the window in troubled silence. Oddly, it seemed an eternity ago instead of the short time that it was.

"What are you thinking about?" Sasuke was close, only a scant few feet behind her.

"I was merely remembering the last time I stood at this window." She sipped at the hot coffee.

"When was that?" He seemed only idly curious.

Sakura felt his gaze roaming her shapely length as surely as if he touched her and stiffened to answer bluntly. "The night of my engagement party to Naruto."

"Forget about him." The command was crisp and impatient, as Sakura guessed it would be.

"It isn't that easy to turn back the clock," she muttered tightly.

The cup nearly slipped from her fingers as she felt the rasping brush of his fingers against her short hair. Her throat constricted, shutting off her voice and her breath.

"Have I told you I like your hair this length?" His low voice was a husky caress running down her spine.

He lifted aside her hair, pushing it away from her neck. The warmth of his breath against her skin warned her an instant before she glimpsed the waving darkness of his hair in her side vision.

His unerring mouth sought and found the ultrasensitive and vulnerable spot at the base of her neck. Her heart felt as though it had been knocked sideways and Sasuke took full advantage of her Achilles' heel. She felt boneless as her head tipped down and to the side to give him freer access.

The cup rattled in its saucer but she managed to hold on to it. His arms wound around her waist to mold her back to his muscular length. For a magic second she was transported back to another time. Then a roughened hand slid under the overlapping fold of her robe to encircle the swell of her breast, a callused finger teasing its nipple and the arms felt suddenly strange.

"Sasuke, no!" Weakly she tugged at his wrist, no match for his strength.

She gasped as his sensual mouth moved upward to her ear and desire licked through her veins at the daring probe of his tongue. An all-pervading weakness went through her limbs. It was a dizzying sensation, wild drums pounding in her ears.

"Do you remember the way we used to make love in the mornings?" Sasuke murmured against her temple.

"Yes," she moaned, the memory all too vivid.

The cup disappeared from her hand, carried away by a fluid movement of Sasuke's hand. It only took the slightest pressure to turn her around. She was drawn to his side, a muscular, silk-covered thigh insinuating itself between her legs as she was arched against him. She lifted her head, subconsciously braced for the punishment of his rough kisses. Her fingers curled into his shoulders for support.

There was the tantalizing touch of his lips against hers. "After last night, I thought I had you out of my system," he said against them, "but I want you more than before."

A half sob came from her throat at the absence of any mention of love. In the next second she didn't care, as his mouth closed over hers with sweet pleasure. There was no plundering demand, only a persuasive exhorting to respond.

Her lips parted willingly, succumbing to the rapturous mastery of his exploration. The dream world of sensation seemed almost enough. She slid her fingers through the springing thickness of his jet black hair, the scent of him early and clean.

As if tired of bending his head to reach her lips, Sasuke tightened his arm around her waist to lift her straight up, bringing her to eye level. It was another indication of his increased strength, that he should carry her weight so effortlessly. At the moment, Sakura was oblivious to this example of his change.

His mouth blazed a moist trail downward to explore the pulsing vein in her neck. "Did Naruto ever make you feel like this?" An attempt to exorcise the memory of Naruto's kisses from her mind? had it been motivated by nothing more than that? She pushed out of his hold, staring at him with wounded pride.

"Did he?" Sasuke repeated, a faintly ragged edged to his breathing.

"You'll never know," she answered in a choked voice. "Maybe he made me feel better."

He took a threatening step towards her, his features dark with rage. There was nowhere for Sakura to retreat. She had to stand her ground despite its indefensibility. Just then there was a knock at the door. Sasuke halted, casting an angry glance at the door.

"Who is it?" he demanded.

The door opened and Naruto walked in. "I'm a bit early, but your housekeeper said you were in her having coffee. She's going to bring me a cup." He stopped, as if sensing the heaviness in the atmosphere. "I didn't think you'd mind if I joined you." But it was something of a question.

"Of course not." Sakura was quick to use him as a buffer.

"Come on in, Naruto," Sasuke continued the invitation. "Speak of the devil, Sakura and I were just talking about you."

"Something good, I hope," Naruto joked stiffly.

"Yes." Sasuke's dark gaze swung to Sakura, considering grimness in their depths. "Yes, it was." But he didn't explain what it had been.

She started breathing again, her hand sliding up to her throat. She became conscious of her partially clothed state and used it as an excuse to leave.

"If you two don't mind, I'll leave you to have coffee alone," she said.

"I hope you aren't going on my account," Naruto said frowning.

"No," Sakura assured him quickly, avoiding Sasuke's mocking look. "I was going upstairs anyway to dress before our housekeeper serves brunch. I'll be down shortly."

As Sakura left, she met the housekeeper bringing the extra cup for Naruto. The housekeeper's composure was under admirable control now and she was her usual calm-faced self.

Once she was dressed, Sakura slipped Naruto's ring into the pocket of her skirt. At some point during the day she hoped to have the chance to return it to him while they were alone. But it was late afternoon before the opportunity presented itself.

* * *

The Konoha Press had learned of Sasuke's return and the house was in a state of siege for the greater part of the day. Either the doorbell or the telephone seemed to be ringing constantly. Sasuke had to grant interviews to obtain any peace but his answers were concise, without elaboration, downplaying his ordeal. As his wife, Sakura was forced to be at his side, while Naruto adopted the role of press secretary and spokesman for the Uchiha Company.

Finally, at four o'clock, the siege seemed to be over and a blessed quietness began to settle over the house. Uchiha Mikoto, who had insisted that coffee and sweets be served to all those who had come, was busy helping the housekeeper clear away the mess.

The ringing of the telephone signaled the last interview for Sasuke, one conducted over the phone. Sakura had started helping the other two women clean up. When she noticed Naruto slip away to the library, she excused herself, knowing she might not have another chance to speak to him alone.

As she stepped inside the library, she saw him pouring whiskey from a crystal decanter over ice cubes in a squat glass. The engagement ring seemed to be burning a circle in her pocket.

"Would you pour me a sherry, Naruto?" She quietly closed the door, shutting out Sasuke's voice coming from the living room.

Naruto's blond head lifted, his surprised look vanishing into a smile when he saw her. "Of course, Sakura-chan." He reached for another glass and a different decanter. Pouring, he remarked, "It's been quite a hectic day."

"Yes, it has." Sakura walked over to take the sherry glass from his hand.

Ice clinked as Naruto lifted his glass to take a quick swallow of whiskey. "A reporter that I know from one of the local papers called and got me out of bed this morning. He'd gotten wind that there was a shake-up in the Uchiha company and he wanted to know what it was. I pleaded ignorance. But that's why I rushed over here so early, to warn Sasuke that the onslaught was coming. I knew it was only a matter of time before they found out."

"Yes." She nodded in agreement, glad there had been no announcement of their engagement in the newspaper or the reporters would have turned Sasuke's return into a circus.

"Sasuke really knows how to handle himself with the press," Naruto stated with undisguised admiration.

"Yes, he does." Sakura sipped her drink.

"And it will make good publicity for the company," he added.

"Yes." She was beginning to feel like a puppet whose string was being pulled to nod agreement to everything Naruto said – when it really wasn't what she wanted to talk about at all.

"I imagine somebody in the company let it slip about Sasuke." He stared thoughtfully at the amber liquid in his glass. "I called around to all the major officers yesterday to let them know he was back. That's probably how the word got out."

"Probably," Sakura agreed and promptly took the initiative to lead into her own subject. "Naruto, I've been wanting to see you today, alone–" she reached in her pocket to take out the circlet of diamonds "–to return this to you."

He took it from her outstretched hand, looking boyishly uncomfortable. His thumb rubbed it between his fingers as he stared at it, not meeting the brightness of her gaze.

"I don't want you to get the idea that I was deserting you yesterday." His voice was uncertain, almost apologetic. "But I know how you felt about Sasuke and I didn't want to stand in the way of your happiness."

With the explanation given for the way he had so readily abandoned their engagement, Naruto lifted his head to gaze at her earnestly, a troubled shade of clouded blue in his eyes. Affection rushed through Sakura at his unselfishness, sacrificing his want for hers.

"I understand, Naruto."

Relief glimmered in his smile. "You must be really glad to have him back."

"I…" she started to repeat the positive assertion she had been making all day, ready to recite the words automatically, but she stopped herself. Among other things, Naruto was her best friend, as well as Sasuke's. with him she could speak her mind. "He's changed, Naruto."

He hesitated for a second before answering, as if her response had caught him off guard and he wanted to word his reply carefully.

"Considering all Sasuke has been through, it's bound to have left a mark on him," he offered.

"I know, but…" She sighed, agitated and frustrated, because she couldn't find the words to explain exactly what she meant.

"Hey, come on now," Naruto cajoled, setting his glass down and grasping her gently by the shoulders, his head bent down to peer into her apprehensive face. "When two people care as much about each other as you and Sasuke do, they're bound to work out their differences. It just can't happen overnight," he reasoned, "Now come on. What do you say? Let's have a little smile. You know it's true that nothing is ever as bad as it seems."

Mountains and molehills. Reluctantly almost, her lips curved at his coaxing words. His steadying influence was having its effect on her again.

"That's my Sakura-chan!" he grinned.

"Oh, Naruto," Sakura declared with a laughing sigh and wrapped her arms lightly around him, taking care not to spill her drink. She hugged him fondly. "What would I do without you?" She drew her head back to gaze at him.

"I hope neither of us has to find out," he remarked and affectionately kissed the top of her nose.

The knob turned and the library door was pushed open by Sasuke. At the sight of Sakura in Naruto's arms he froze and the same paralysis gripped her. She paled as she saw his lips thin into an angry line.

But the violence of his emotion wasn't detectable in his voice as he remarked casually, "Is this a private party or can anyone join in?"

His question broke the chains holding Sakura motionless. She withdrew her arms from around Naruto to hold her sherry glass in both hands. Naruto turned to greet him, insensitive to the heightening tension in the air.

"Now that you're here, Sasuke, we can drink a toast to the last of the newspaper reporters," he announced in a celebrating tone, not displaying any self-consciousness about the scene Sasuke had interrupted.

"For a while anyway," Sasuke agreed, his gaze swinging to Sakura. Sasuke would wait until they were alone.

"I will have the same."

It was late that evening before Naruto left. Each dragging minute in the interim honed Sakura's nerves to a razor-thin edge. By the time he had left, she could no longer stand the suspense of waiting for the confrontation with Sasuke.

With the revving of Naruto's car coming from the driveway, Sakura paused in the foyer to challenge Sasuke. "Arent you going to say it?"

He didn't pretend an ignorance of her question, his gaze hard and unrelenting. "Stay away from Naruto."

All the blame for the innocent encounter was placed on her and she reacted with indignant outrage. "And what about Naruto?"

"I know Naruto well enough to be assured he isn't going to trespass, unless encouraged, on my territory."

"So I'm supposed to avoid him, is that it?" she flashed.

"Whatever relationship you had with him in my absence is finished," Sasuke declared in a frigid tone. "From now on he's simply an acquaintance of mine. That's all he is to you."

"That's impossible!!" She derided his suggestion that she could dismiss Naruto from her life with a snap of her fingers. "I can't forget all he's meant to me that easily."

A pair of iron clamps dug into the soft flesh of her arms and she was jerked to him, the breath knocked out of her by the hard contact with the solid wall of his chest. Her lips were crushed by the angry fire of his kiss, a kiss that seared his brand of possession on her and burned away any memory of another's mouth.

Sakura was released from his punishing embrace with equal force. Shaken and unnerved, she retreated with a step. With the back of her hand she tried to rub away the fiery imprint of his mouth.

"You–" she began with an impotent rage.

"Don't push me, Sakura." Sasuke warned.

They glared at each other in thundering silence. Sakura had no idea how long the battle of wills would have continued if his mother hadn't entered the foyer seconds later. Each donned a mask to conceal their personal conflict from her eyes.

"Our housekeeper just told me you'd asked her to bring some blankers to the library, Sasuke." Uchiha Miikoto was wearing a frown. "You aren't going to sleep there again, tonight, are you?"

"Yes, I am, mother," he responded decisively.

"But it's so uncivilized," she protested.

"Perhaps," Sasuke conceded, for an instant meeting Sakura's look. "It's also infinitely preferable to not sleeping."

"I suppose so." His mother sighed her reluctant agreement. "Good night, Sasuke."

"Good night, mother," he returned, and coldly arched an eyebrow at Sakura. "Good night."

* * *

**A/N:** Well, there you have it! The end of chapter five. Don't forget to review.


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